This invention relates to a combination photographing and developing apparatus having a photographing section and a developing section integrally connected to each other thereby allowing given data to be photographed on a roll of film by the photographing section and subsequently the exposed film to be developed by the developing section and producing a completed film.
Banks and other establishments which handle notes such as bills and checks make a point of daily photographing on microfilm, for the purpose of record, all the notes received from customers and transferred to clearing houses. The conventional device used for photographing such notes on microfilm has comprised separate photographing and developing units. The user, therefore, has been compelled to have all the notes received in a given day photographed by the photographic unit, rewind the exposed portion of the microfilm, cut the portion of the microfilm from the remainder of the microfilm at the end of the day's photographing, remove the rewound roll of exposed microfilm, and subject it to development in the developing unit. Since both the photographic unit and the developing unit of the conventional device are installed in normally illuminated rooms, the microfilm being cut and removed from the photographic unit is liable to accidental exposure. The user, therefore, is required to prevent the exposed portion of the microfilm from being accidentally exposed upon removal from the photographic unit by following the practice of separating the exposed portion of the microfilm from the remaining, unexposed portion of the microfilm by inserting a cut at the end of a two- to three-meter extra portion following the end of the exposed portion, rewinding the exposed portion so that the extra portion forms the tail end of the rewound roll of the microfilm, and then removing the rewound roll of microfilm from the photographic unit, and consequently protecting the photographed portion from accidental exposure by allowing the extra portion now forming the outermost layer of the rewound roll of microfilm to be sacrificed. At the time that the exposed portion of the microfilm plus the extra portion which has been cut and rewound in the photographic unit is removed by opening the photographic unit, the first few layers in the roll of microfilm remaining in the photographic unit are exposed. To start the next day's photographing, the user is required to pay off these first exposed layers of the roll of microfilm and bring the first part of the unexposed roll of microfilm to the position for starting the photographing. The length of the microfilm thus wasted also measures roughly two to three meters. The portion of the microfilm developed every day by the developing unit, therefore, contains wastefully exposed portions, each 2 to 3 meters in length, one before and one after the photographed portion.
Besides, the work of cutting the microfilm at the end of the day's photographing, removing the separated exposed portion of the microfilm from the photographing unit, and mounting the rewound roll of the exposed microfilm on the developing unit takes much time and trouble. Because the developing unit which makes use of various liquid agents such as developing agent and fixing agent is opened every day for insertion of the exposed roll of microfilm, there is a possibility of the user's hands and clothes being soiled with such liquid agents.
To overcome this fault found with the conventional device, the inventors proposed a combination photographing and developing apparatus wherein a photographing section provided with a loading part for loading a roll of film and a camera for photographing given data on the film paid off from the loading part and a developing section provided with a developing liquid tank, a washing water tank, a drying part, and a detachable takeup reel are integrally connected to each other so that the film may be advanced through a prescribed route, passed through the photographing position of the camera, led into the developing section, there to be sent through the developing liquid tank, the washing water tank, and the drying part, and finished as a complete film (Patent Application Disclosure No. Sho 55(1980)-64229). This apparatus is designed so that the photographing time and the developing time are equalized to each other and the exposed portions of the roll of film are successively forwarded to the developing section to be developed. Each time a photographing operation is completed, the film up to the tail end of the exposed portion of the roll of film is advanced from the photographing section to the developing section, with the result that a fair length of the unexposed portion of the roll of film is paid off wastefully. Further since the film feed rate is unnaturally equalized between the photographic section and the developing section, there is entailed the disadvantage that the retention time of the film in the developing liquid is elongated when the time spent in photographing is lengthened, for example. To eliminate this disadvantage, the inventor proposed an improved version wherein a shielded chamber for pooling the exposed portion of the film is disposed between the photographing section and the developing section and after the exposed film thus pooled within the shielded chamber has accumulated to a prescribed length, the film is paid off into the developing section to be developed at the optimum speed. The incorporation of the shielded chamber adapted to pool a large volume of exposed film brings about an inevitable addition to the overall size of the apparatus as a whole. When a given photographing operation is excessively long, the photographing must be interrupted for the purpose of permitting the exposed film pooled to capacity in the shielded chamber to be forwarded to the developing section to be developed therein. Besides, since the shielded chamber is adapted so that the exposed film pooled therein is pulled downwardly out of the chamber and forwarded to the developing section, it tends to damage the film. The improved version, accordingly, is not free from faults.